A freight forwarding company in the USA is swinging into action by using three Boeing 747s to export potatoes into Japan because of a critical shortage of french fries in Japanese McDonald’s outlets.
There has been a delay in importing potatoes from North America, so last week McDonald’s Japan announced they were suspending sales of large and medium serves of french fries across the country. Disaster.
Normally, McDonald’s imports its potatoes via ship from Vancouver. But flood damage and the impact of coronavirus on global supply networks have caused delays there.
“The fries shortage is primarily due to the supply side of McDonald’s global supply chain,” Hiroshi Ohashi, an economics professor from the University of Tokyo, told NBC. “They procure potatoes from the US, where port shipping has been a bottleneck.”